Notes

Sentiment manufacture of cosmetic expressions: A comparison associated with deaf and also listening to kids.
The detection of NREM-REM sleep cycles in human sleep data (i.e., polysomnographically assessed sleep stages) enables fine-grained analyses of ultradian variations in sleep microstructure (e.g., sleep spindles, and arousals), or other amplitude- and frequency-specific electroencephalographic features during sleep. While many laboratories have software that is used internally, reproducibility requires the availability of open-source software. Therefore, we here introduce the 'SleepCycles' package for R, an open-source software package that identifies sleep cycles and their respective (non-) rapid eye movement ([N]REM) periods from sleep staging data. Additionally, each (N)REM period is subdivided into parts of equal duration (percentiles), which may be useful for further fine-grained analyses. The detection criteria used in the package are, with some adaptations, largely based on criteria originally proposed by Feinberg and Floyd (1979). The latest version of the package can be downloaded from the Comprehensive R Archives Network (CRAN).•The package 'SleepCycles' for R allows to identify sleep cycles and their respective NREM and REM periods from sleep staging results.•Besides the cycle detection, NREM and REM periods are also split into parts of equal duration (percentiles) thereby allowing for a better temporal resolution across the night and comparisons of sleep cycles with different durations amongst different night recordings.This project aimed to assess the Online National Board of Urology Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) feasibility in evaluating candidates simultaneously from five urology training centers in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected from two online OSCE simulation trials and the Online National Board of Urology OSCE. A self-administered questionnaire was used to assess examiners and candidates' perception. The average final score of the Online OSCE was compared to previous face-to-face OSCE results. All candidates and examiners (100%) heard and saw clearly the audio-visual in both OSCE simulation trials. None of the candidates had a failing score on the mock exam from all stations. There was a statistically significant difference between the online OSCE and December 2019 face-to-face OSCE. The Online National Board Urology OSCE was feasible and comparable to face-to-face OSCE in evaluating urology candidates. It may be beneficial for the future OSCE method in the medical education system.•Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) which assesses a broad range of urology candidates' high-level clinical skills, is a more valid and reliable assessment instrument than the traditional oral examination•The Online National Board of Urology OSCE method can help evaluate urology candidates, especially during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.Hard ticks are important vectors of DNA- and RNA-based infectious microorganisms, but they also host complex microbial communities in which pathogens and symbionts can interact among each other and with the arthropod host itself. Molecular investigations on ticks and their hosted microorganisms are important for human and animal health. These analyses often imply the use of both DNA and RNA, with prompt preservation of nucleic acids after collection, and safe handling in case of low-level containment. Several commercial kits are available for the co-extraction of DNA and RNA; however, cost can be a limiting factor for the choice of this method, which also require additional reagents for nucleic acids preservation before extraction. Additionally, extraction buffers provided in commercial kits do not guarantee the safe handling in case of hazardous biological material. With the aim of epidemiological screenings for tick-borne pathogens and gene expression analyses focused on the relationship among ticks and their microbial communities, an optimized protocol for DNA and RNA co-extraction from single adult hard tick specimens (Ixodidae) has been developed using TRIzolⓇ LS Reagent.A method for•DNA/RNA co-extraction from adult hard tick specimens;•Safe sample handling;•Obtaining DNA and RNA simultaneously for diagnostic procedures and RNA for gene expression/transcriptomic analyses.Technical details, algorithms, and MATLAB implementation for a method advanced in the paper ``Wavelet Based Dictionaries for Dimensionality Reduction of ECG Signals'', are presented. This work aims to be the companion of that publication, in which an adaptive mathematical model for a given ECG record is proposed. The method comprises the following building blocks.(i)Construction of a suitable redundant set, called 'dictionary', for decomposing an ECG signal as a superposition of elementary components, called 'atoms', selected from that dictionary.(ii)Implementation of the greedy strategy Optimized Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (OOMP) for selecting the atoms intervening in the signal decomposition.This paper gives the details of the algorithms for implementing stage (i), which is not fully elaborated in the previous publication. The proposed dictionaries are constructed from known wavelet families, but translating the prototypes with a shorter step than that corresponding to a wavelet basis. Stage (ii) is readily implementable by the available function OOMP.•The use of the software and the power of the technique is illustrated by reducing the dimensionality of ECG records taken from the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database.•The MATLAB software has been made publicly available on a dedicated website.•We provide the explanations, algorithms and software for the construction of scaling functions and wavelet prototypes for 17 different wavelet families. The procedure is designed to allow for straightforward extension of the software by the inclusion of additional options for the wavelet families.This study develops a comprehensive method to assess seasonal influences on a longitudinal marker and compare estimates between cohorts. The method extends existing approaches by (i) combining a sine-cosine model of seasonality with a specialized covariance function for modeling longitudinal correlation; (ii) performing mediation analysis on a seasonality model. An example dataset and R code are provided. The bundle of methods is referred to as seasonality, mediation and comparison (SMAC). The case study described utilizes lung function as the marker observed on a cystic fibrosis cohort but SMAC can be used to evaluate other markers and in other disease contexts. Key aspects of customization are as follows.•This study introduces a novel seasonality model to fit trajectories of lung function decline and demonstrates how to compare this model to a conventional model in this context.•Steps required for mediation analyses in the seasonality model are shown.•The necessary calculations to compare seasonality models between cohorts, based on estimation coefficients, are derived in the study.Iron nanoparticles are used as a targeted drug delivery system. The nanocarrier itself can be genotoxic, trigger oxidative stress or cell death. Therefore, we developed an AC/DC magnetic syringe for injecting, stimulating drug release and safe removing of the nanocarrier. Alongside we optimized the method for nanoparticles' drug release kinetics and testing cytotoxicity in vitro.•This paper presents detailed instructions for construction of AC/DC magnetic syringe device for stimulated drug release, injection and ejection of magnetic nanoparticles; nanoparticles preparation; adsorbing methylene blue on nanoparticles; determination of drug release kinetics from nanocarriers on the example of methylene blue•Gomori´s Prussian blue reaction for differentiated SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cell line; MTT viability assay optimized for differentiated SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cell line and antioxidant enzymes activities assay and lipid peroxidation methods are optimized for cell analyses cell cultivation for nanoparticles cytotoxicity testing in vitro.•Those protocols are the first step toward further testing the effect of nanoparticles in vivo, on brain tissue.Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) is applied in the engineering with great fuzziness and uncertainty. Technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) method is used to deal with multi-criteria decision-making issue. Membership function is used to determine the membership degree of evaluated index. This paper presents the method for lake eutrophication level evaluation. The developed approach merges MCS method, TOPSIS method and membership function. The evaluated results are consistent with real eutrophication level in Lake Erhai, China. Global sensitivity analysis (GSA) is conducted. Results show that potassium permanganate index (CODMn) displays the highest negative correlation with the evaluated results and Secchi disc (SD) performs the highest positive correlation under different errors in measured data. The novelty of this work are (1) the application of TOPSIS considers Surface water environmental quality standards and measured data. Besides, the Monte Carlo simulation method is applied to generate a normal distributed dataset to overcome the errors caused by human and equipment in data collection. JAK pathway The approach is utilized in the article, titled "Approach based on TOPSIS and Monte Carlo simulation methods to evaluate lake eutrophication levels" (Lin et al., 2020) [1].•Developed approach merges TOPSIS and MCS method.•It can increase the reliability of evaluated result.This paper deals with the global energy consumption to forecast future projections based on primary energy, global oil, coal and natural gas consumption using a hybrid Cuckoo optimization algorithm and information of British Petroleum Company plc and BP Amoco plc. The Artificial Neural Network (ANN) has some significant disadvantages, such as training slowly, easiness to fall into local optimal point, and sensitivity of the initial weights and bias. To overcome the shortcomings, an improved ANN structure, that is optimized by the Cuckoo Optimization Algorithm (COA), is proposed in this paper (COANN). The performance of the COANN is evaluated with Mean Squared Error (MSE), Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), and Correlation Coefficient (CC) between the output of the model and the actual dataset. Finally, CO2 emission in the world by 2050 is forecasted using COANN. The findings showed that COANN is a helpful and reliable tool for monitoring global warming. This proposed method will assist experts, policy planners and researchers who study greenhouse gases.•The method can be used as a potential tool for policymakers and governments to make policy on global warming monitoring and control.•The proposed method can play a key role in the global climate changes policies and can have a significant impact on the efficiency or inefficiency of government's intervention policies.Routine generation of large Rb-Sr age datasets has been limited by the time-consuming requirement of chromatographic isolation of Sr from Rb to avoid the isobaric interference of 87Rb+ on 87Sr+. Recently, direct measurement of interference-free 87Sr/86Sr has become possible with the advent of tandem quadrupole inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS/MS). Here, we describe a method that uses ICP-MS/MS to measure 87Sr/86Sr combined with a standard addition calibration for precise determination of Rb/Sr, allowing efficient generation of Rb-Sr ages. The method is demonstrated on a suite of ~50 to 90 Myrs (million years) old celadonite samples that are dated with age uncertainties typically of ±2 to 5 Myrs provided the sample Rb/Sr is >2. A method to separate the phyllosilicate fraction from the bulk sample, because it commonly has a higher Rb/Sr more suitable for dating, using differential settling is also described.•Differential settling allows high Rb/Sr phyllosilicates to be separated from other phases•ICP-MS/MS allows 87Sr/86Sr measurement without chromatographic isolation of Sr+ from Rb+•Single-spike standard addition ICP-MS was used for Rb/Sr measurement.
Homepage: https://www.selleckchem.com/JAK.html